‘Sherlock’ Season 4 Spoilers: Benedict Cumberbatch Teases Trouble for Titular Character; Real-Life Couple Martin Freeman, Amanda Abbington Split Prior to Premiere

‘Sherlock’ season 4 is set to feature the return of Benedict Cumberbatch in the lead role. He teased trouble for his titular character in a recent interview. Meanwhile, real-life couple Martin Freeman and Amanda Abbington announced their split prior to the season premiere on January 2017. Freeman plays Dr. John Watson and Abbington plays his on-screen wife Mary.

According to Digital Spy, Cumberbatch teased that the incoming season of BBC One’s crime-drama television series is set to be a tough one for both his character Sherlock as well as Martin Freeman’s Dr. Watson. He said, "If you were to put him in a psychiatrist's chair… You're faced with someone who's in a lot of trouble.” Referring to Sherlock’s drug-induced hallucinations in the 2016 special, “The Abominable Bride,” the 40-year old actor continued, "If what we've seen before is an unravelling, then it's a drop in the ocean compared to what's to come."

Creator and writer Steven Moffat also teased, "Without giving anything away, this is about as tough a journey as he goes on… Sherlock and John both, actually. This is about as difficult as it gets for them. They kind of go to hell and back this time."

The incoming season is set to feature the arrival of the latest antagonist Culverton Smith, described to be one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's “finest” villains from the detective series. English actor Toby Jones, most famous for his role as Truman Capote on the 2006 biopic ‘Infamous,’ is set to play Culverton.

Freeman promised, "If it's possible to be even more creepy than Moriarty, he gives him a good run for his money… He's pretty odious!" Moffat added, "I hope Toby doesn't mind me saying, but he's a little man... and Benedict looms over him… But he does weirdly somehow give an impression of a genuine physical threat. There is something he can do, in his compact way, that evokes an extraordinary amount of menace."

The incoming season will also introduce John and Mary’s new bundle of joy as the two will adjust to their newfound parenthood. According to The Mary Sue, co-writer Mark Gatiss admitted that the new developments will not change the original tone of the show.

Gatiss explained, “It creates a different dynamic… Now I must stress, although we have a lot of fun with it, it doesn’t mean that Sherlock has become Two Men, a Woman and a Baby. But we do have fun with it, because there’s fun to be had.”

In a strange turn of events, John and Mary’s real-life counterparts Martin Freeman and Amanda Abbington announced their split after 16 years together prior to season 4’s premiere. According to The Telegraph, this would be a case of life imitating art since John and Mary will be struggling with a dissolving marriage following the birth of their baby.

Abbington revealed in a separate interview, “Martin and I remain best friends and love each other, and it was entirely amicable… There was no hostility, really, we just said that we couldn’t live together anymore, so we put everything in place, he moved out to a flat in north London, I stayed at home and we’ve started a new chapter.”

‘Sherlock’ season 4’s episode 1, titled "The Six Thatchers," is scheduled to premiere on BBC One in the UK and PBS in the U.S. on January 1, 2016. It was directed by Rachel Talalay and written by Mark Gatiss.